Survivor's Love
by Eric VanDerBoom
Summary: When Leon wakes up from another night of passion with Ada, he expects to find her gone with the morning sun. What he does find, however, is a confession he's always needed to hear from the woman he's always wanted to be with.


Resident Evil: Survivors' Love

The events of the night before came back to his mind in that dark flash that comes before the opening of one's eyes. In his case, they opened to behold the cheery morning sun.

His body lightly searing with pleasure-ridden pain, Leon Kennedy managed to swivel himself onto the edge of his bed, his sheets rustling away as he stood to find some pants. Nights like the one before were always a welcome surprise, yet they also drained him more than his career as a D.S.O. agent ever could. Usually. But then again, it wasn't often that he had nights like the one before.

Leon had come back to his rather plush apartment home from another long night at his job – this one ridden with security briefings covering the aftermath of the aftermath of the Tall Oaks disaster – only to find that, unlike most nights, he wasn't alone. Following the scent of deliciously spiced candles burning, he had found her, lounging on his bed.

Ada Wong.

The woman who, ever since that fateful night in Raccoon City when they'd met, had continued to haunt him throughout his life. First there, then in Spain, and more recently in Tall Oaks and Lanshiang, China. Yet with every sight of her, she only stoked the fire that burned only for her – a beautiful, mysterious femme fatale; a secret agent for a mysterious organization at last check. Somehow she always seemed to keep herself and her employers happy while also watching over him from afar. Yet, with all the danger that flared between and around them, he always remained grateful toward her in some weird way.

And even through all of that danger, there was undoubtedly a connection between them. Was it because of the danger? The rare meetings? The fencing contest of sarcasm and teasing? Or perhaps it ran deeper than that. Leon certainly thought so, and certainly Ada had as well, especially since 'that night'. Only he deserved to have her, she'd said. But after every wild, passionate night that seemed to result from their meetings nowadays, she was gone with the morning moon and had always left a letter, sealed with a kiss, for him in her stead.

So it was with no surprised that when Leon looked back to his rumpled bed as he slipped into a dark pair of sweats, he found it was empty as usual.

The unusual bits and pieces suddenly began to click with his observations that came after – no note left from her, her Parisian perfume still strongly sailing the warm air of his home, and was that the sound of smooth jazz he could hear coming from his kitchen? And now, Leon could smell something was cooking from there too, just underneath the flowery scent of the perfume.

 _This is new,_ Leon thought as he grabbed a random shirt out of his dresser and stepped out into the small kitchen outside. Just as he was slipping the shirt on, he heard a playful proclamation of, "You really need to put that on, handsome? You've still got nothing to hide from me." When he looked back up, he was finally convinced that he wasn't just imagining things.

Ada was indeed there.

With a wry chuckle and the tossing away of his shirt, Leon strode behind her and gently wrapped his arms around her waist, playfully nuzzling her neck. This earned a small chuckle from Ada before she said, "Now, now, I'm trying to make us breakfast, and you don't want me burning it, do you?"

"Strangely, I feel that after all we've been through, that's the least of our worries", Leon fired back with a playful note in his voice.

"That may be, but eggs Benedict isn't something I'd want to spoil in trying to make, you big goof."

"So this isn't the part where you sneak out the window and _leave_ me stripped bare, then?" His voice was alight with playful sarcasm, and this earned Leon another one of Ada's soft, musical laughs before responding with, "Well, I've got to keep you on your toes somehow." Setting a lid on the pot she was using, she turned around to face him, letting her fingers play with the back of his smooth blond hair. "Besides, what fun would it be if you got complacent, Mr. Kennedy?"

"Touché", Leon replied with a chuckle. He tried to sneak a kiss from Ada too, but was only met with a finger to his lips. "Ah-ah…no desert until after breakfast, Leon."

"Yes, ma'am", Leon smartly replied, chuckling as he moved over to the couch in the living room, watching her work. He couldn't help but take in every bit of her he could see – her ivory hair cut in a bob, the simple red dress shirt she'd stolen from Leon that covered her lean, strong arms and full chest, the hint of black lace panties just underneath… "Looks like you're having fun over there, though."

"Oh, believe you me, Leon, you're not the only one with hidden talents." Ada soon followed him in, two plates full of the result of her cooking. "And don't worry, I'm not scheming to leave you knocked out with tainted food so I can make a hasty escape", she finished with another throaty chuckle.

Keeping his eyes locked on her, Leon took a small bite of the eggs Benedict she'd made for them. To his mild surprise, he didn't find himself unconscious after the first 30 seconds of trying them.

"Skeptic much?" Ada teased. "Or were they just that delicious?"

"Both, it seems like", Leon replied, yet this made the wave of questions crashing over his mind grow with more inquiries. "Staying until the morning, making breakfast, and now we're talking like an old married couple. Never thought that'd happen."

"You and me both", she acquiesced, her gaze darting away from his and a gleam of something flashing there for just a second.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Ada?" At Leon's inquiring, her gaze flashed back to his, that Mona Lisa-esque smile coming back to her face. "Now would seep appropriate, considering you've practically got me where you want me", she replied. Her dulcet tones rang with just a hint of seductive surrender – yet even that was more on her terms. It always seemed that way, no matter how things went between Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong.

Thus, it was with some slight trepidation that Leon asked, "What did make you stay this time?"

From that question, Leon noticed a definite change in Ada's usually relaxed, almost feline body language. She stiffened just a bit, her eyes darting away again as if afraid of what she would say as an answer, before her eyes came back to meet his in a guarded and cautious way.

"Do you…really want to know?"

"As much as you're willing to tell me", Leon responded. "Besides, considering you know everything about me, it is only fair, right?" he finished with a cheeky tone in his voice. At that, a soft smile stretched across Ada's lovely face, easing the visible tension there. Letting out a soft breath with it, she began to answer.

"Well…I told you before how I left Wesker, how he crossed a line with me that should never be crossed…"

"Yeah?"

"The truth is, he wasn't the first one to…use me in the same sort of horrible way that he did."

Leon moved closer to her, his voice deescalating to a whisper. "Who'd done that before?"

Ada let her gaze drop down to the couch they were both on before her gaze locked back onto Leon's with an unearthly intensity. "Would you believe it was my parents?"

" _Rough childhood?"_

" _That's a bit of an understatement…but it was indeed a childhood I wanted no further part of when it was finally over with. Nothing but a river full of unwanted memories and cheap alcohol, courtesy of both sides."_

 _"Abuse?"_

" _Yeah…my father. He only saw me as some inhuman creature that ruined the beautiful woman that was his wife. Pretty vocal about it, too. But even through that, my mother only seemed to cake care of me as mere necessity, not out of any parental affection. Of course, it seemed to make things worse that I grew up in a family that seemed to be richer than God."_

 _"So what did you do?"_

" _What else was there to do but what I've done best, Leon? I ran away when I was old enough to do so. I wanted to get out of the situation I was in, and so I did. When the Agency found me, I was working and living in a homeless shelter. They promised me so many better things besides the start of a new and different life._

 _"You regret anything about it?"_

" _Only one thing. There was only one person I trusted enough that I could leave anything in her care and it would come out better than before, the only real friend I ever had. She seemed to understand what I was going through in my life – she wasn't exactly wanting for much herself."_

 _"What happened to her?"_

" _She…disappeared soon before I became old enough to know how to finally run away from home and stay that way. As soon as I did, I adopted her name as my own in her memory, and because I didn't want my parents to find me. With the connections they had, I have no doubt they could have easily done so. That's how the Agency found me…working at a restaurant while living in a seedy apartment building that may as well have been a homeless shelter. They knew me by the name of my friend and that's how they first signed me on, before I took my real name back on as my alias. Backwards, I know, but…"_

 _"It's not usually the first instinct of people like you or myself to go for the most obvious reason for things like that. Trust me, I know."_

" _Point."_

" _And John? And Umbrella?"_

" _Well, the basics, I'm sure you already know about, so there's not much else to tell. I only got close to John to further investigate Umbrella after the Agency heard that they were keeping an eye on anyone involved with the development of the T- and G-viruses. That's why I ended up in Chicago with him in the first place. But, of course, he saw it a little differently. He trusted me enough to teach me at least the basics of his craft. When it was rumored that he disappeared to Raccoon City, the Agency assigned me as Wesker's partner, since he already had a leg up in Raccoon's affairs, and I was quick to learn. The trouble was, Wesker had his own intentions, of course, and I was nothing but a tool to him. The whole time I worked with him, I kept shutting myself off from having any emotional affection toward anyone. If all people I knew were like that, what would be the point of it all?_

 _"Oh…so that's why-"_

" _Yep…I suppose it's a good thing you didn't listen to me back then, Leon. I didn't want to care for you at first because of my past – I thought it wouldn't be worth it at first, that one of us would only hurt worse. And once I found it in me to even start caring again, I didn't want to do it as much as I did, if only because I didn't want any unnecessary casualties in the fallout of my mission if it failed. But…no matter what happened, you just kept watching my back, regardless of your own. Selfless, protective, handsome ol' you. As that night in hell wore on, I couldn't believe at first that you could truly be who you are, and thought nothing of how I treated you at first. But you never stopped watching out for me, and it wasn't just part of your job either. Of course Wesker found out, and after Raccoon I kept you in the dark of what happened with me, but…you never stopped lingering in my head. No matter where I went, whatever I did for the agency…you just never left. I always kept thinking about what you would do in whatever situation I found myself in."_

"And now?"

"Well…at this point, you're mostly caught up", Ada responded. "After everything that happened in Tall Oaks and China, the agency decided that I was just too dangerous. But they knew they couldn't kill me, because I was the best they'd had. So they let me go, with every intention of trying to call me back should they need me." At this, she thought back of everything that happened with a smile. "Still as beautiful and bad as ever though."

"Too dangerous? You? Well, I can't see that", Leon said facetiously. "Still, it's clearly my kind of combination."

"You don't say? Please tell me more", Ada playfully fired back, a musical chuckle escaping her lips. "I mean, you having always wanting me wasn't enough of a tipoff for me."

"Cheeky", Leon responded, a smile flickering at the corner of his own lips. "Just one last thing, though: why'd you decide to tell me all of this now?"

"Well…if I must be honest, I'm tired, Leon", Ada let out with a light sigh. "I'm tired of all this running around, mission to mission, place to place. Sometimes, a girl's just got to settle down at some point." She looked back into Leon's eyes, letting her smile come back to her face. "Just think of it as classified information no one else is allowed to know", Ada answered with a wink.

"For my eyes only, M?"

Ada made what seemed like an unamused face as she replied, "Excuse me? I'm no M." Her smile then slowly broke through as she lightly smacked Leon's chest. "If anything, I'm Agent XXX. You should know better than that, James Bond."

"Touché", Leon conceded. "But back on point, is that the only reason you're telling me all of this?"

"Well, that, and I need someone who can hold their own with me at least once in a while." Ada cocked her head curiously as she kept her almond brown gaze leveled solely on his of ocean blue. "But you, Leon Scott Kennedy…what is it that brings you to mind?"

Shrugging lightly, Leon answered, "Well, to paraphrase a certain woman I know, I'm just a man who fell in love with you, and nothing more."

Ada cocked her head a bit to one side as she noticed him using the words she herself spoke to him back in Raccoon, all those centuries ago. "She sounds like an amazing woman. You should do a better job at keeping around, though."

"Well, when she keeps bolting off without me…" Leon let the words drift off before tightly wrapping his arms around Ada, holding her close. "Oh, finally caught her."

Grabbing onto his arm with a gentle smile, becoming even more genuine and welcome by the second, Ada straightened up to sit at eye level with Leon, playfully brushing a finger against the tip of his nose. "Only because I let you, handsome, don't forget."

"Is that a challenge I hear, Miss Wong?" Leon asked, wrinkling his nose a bit.

"Could be, Mr. Kennedy. It just could be" Ada teased, tracing her finger down the contours of his neck and across his collarbone. It was then that Leon noticed – she was wearing the very same dress shirt that he had donned only last night when she found him coming home from walking the nighttime streets of D.C.

"Just one last thing, Ada…", Leon whispered, his face inching closer to hear. "You know I love you."

Ada let out an involuntary shudder at his words, gripping his shoulders tightly as if he were a life raft adrift a deserted ocean and she'd be left behind if her grip were lost. Only now did her blood begin to heat up. "No…don't say it like that. Say it to my face, like you mean it."

"I love you, Ada Wong", Leon whispered again, this time with raw truth behind his words, his deep blue eyes locking firmly onto hers.

" As I do you, Leon Kennedy", Ada returned, genuinely, yet unable to stop a tone as husky as smoke from a dragon's lungs. She soon found her lips pressing hotly against his, holding him tightly again like a dream of love that neither of them wanted to let go of. To do so at this point would have been nothing short of a crime, she thought.

They came up for breath as their eyes opened again, breathing deeply as Leon finally succumbed to her bait. "Challenge accepted."


End file.
